Prompt 11 (Marshmallow Snow): Fresh-fallen snow coats Destiny City. It’s pristine and crisp, and it crunches as you walk through it. It may be a few inches deep, but it doesn’t seem to go above your calves when walking. At first, it’s easy enough to walk through, but gradually you realize that it’s getting harder to move. Every step you take feels like the snow is pulling you back in, and if you get a good look you might realize that sticky white fluff is clinging to you. The more you walk, the more it pulls, until you’re almost completely stuck. Something about the snow smells oddly sweet, and the tacky, marshmallow-like snow seems like it’s suddenly become a prison. The more you try to break free, the stickier it gets, and you’d better hope you don’t fall down. The more you struggle the harder it is to escape, but if you manage to stay still for a few minutes, the marshmallow will freeze and crystallize. When you move again, the snow will turn into a powdery dust and you can break free easily. The only good thing about this is that you won’t starve if you get trapped–the snow tastes just like marshmallows.
The only reasonable time to go ‘patrolling’ was when Nobleite could assume with almost perfect certainty that no one else would be out. He was happy to scout the area, happy to leech off any stragglers out past their bedtimes, happy to submit a report defining the locale he’d surveyed and admitting to no senshi presence in the vicinity. He thought that was plenty informative and spared him the danger of actual combat. So long as he didn’t come face to face with an enemy, that was a relatively successful night.
He’d selected a residential area for the eve. Out past midnight in a rather upper-end part of the city, he doubted there’d be hardly any foot traffic, beside the occasional workaholic just returning home. Even that may be pretty far-fetched, given the temperature.
Crystalline flakes fell in a steady flurry from the sky, landing in a delicate sheet of ice along the roads, sidewalks, and yards. The cold prickled at Nobleite’s nose and ears, but it wasn’t so terrible. His uniform was almost entirely covering, and he suspected the magic of Chaos probably warded off the worst of the chill. As he moved down the sidewalk, in front of pretty, large, two-story houses, the only thing he thought was wrong were the obvious tracks he left in his wake. Maybe they’d be covered before anyone noticed, though Nobleite was absolutely positive this was the type of neighborhood where if people looked out their windows and saw a stranger strolling around, there’d be suspicion.
He knew, because this had been his neighborhood, once.
He’d lived here with his husband and his daughter, in a home they had designed themselves for their family. He and Elias both had lucrative jobs that could afford them the type of comfort and security of a nice neighborhood where most of the dangers of Destiny City were several miles away. Hence why he figured he wouldn’t run into any senshi, here. They’d be scouring where the youma lurked, not loitering in a quiet residential neighborhood.
And so long as he didn’t cause a scene, he could stroll by his own home, and just… Well, no, he shouldn’t. He didn’t want to bring this commotion close to his daughter. He’d avoid his old street, and keep to focusing on looking for anyone just returning home for the night…
Posted: Mon Dec 13, 2021 4:02 pm
It’d been late when Elias had gotten off of work. Not midnight late, mind, but late enough that his mother had texted him before he left the office to say that Teyla had fallen asleep watching Disney movies, despite the youngster insisting that she would definitely be awake when Papa got back! He didn’t begrudge her her rest, and if she was asleep already, there was no reason for him to rush to retrieve her. It was Friday night; they’d have all day tomorrow to eat cereal and watch cartoons and play in the snow.
Tonight he would work.
He didn’t power into Sawtooth often. Seemed risky, seemed unnecessary. He enjoyed his Wonder, but trips there were only about once a month, much to Kaia’s chagrin. Nothing he could do about it, though. And if he wasn’t visiting Saturn, he didn’t see much point in spending time powered. What was he supposed to do, just wander the city looking for a fight when no one would be any the wiser if he was attacked by the Negaverse and starseed ripped out and body hidden in their Rift, leaving his family to wonder what could have possibly happened to him?
Pass.
He’d power up when he could visit his wonder. There was no point in it, otherwise. He’d gone to Sawtooth after leaving the office. It was in a constant state of disrepair, with only him to look after it on the rare occasions he was able to visit. Much of it was dark and overgrown, with foliage tangled around the spires of his namesake, and rock slab walkways cracked and full of weeds.
He wished he knew more of what to do for it, besides just sheer back some of the shrubbery and try to tame the wilderness that krept in. He was good at that, at least. Landscaping he could definitely handle. Plumbing and electricity… less so. Sawtooth was hopeful that it was possible, just probably not from him. One day he’d enlist someone with more skill in those areas. Just… not anytime soon. He barely trusted anyone to know he could power up like this- Well, no. He actually didn’t trust anyone to know he could power up like this. It was a private secret, all his own. It should probably stay that way.
A few hours was all he could give her on any given day. Kaia understood- mostly, though he did frequently get the jab of ’Just bring her with you!’ in reference to his daughter.
Big nope there. He wanted Teyla as far from all this as possible.
So imagine his surprise when he landed back on Earth after his visit, a few streets away from his house (what he expected was enough of a distance for no one to suspect it was Elias Gage causing that aura), and felt viscerally, the presence of Chaos. Maybe it was far away enough to divert suspicion from himself, but it was absolutely not far enough away from where he and his daughter slept for him to be comfortable with its existence.
It was unwise for him to get into a fight alone. He was tall and built well-enough, but he hadn’t been combat trained to any special degree. Just what Kaia had shown him since he awakened. He didn’t have a real weapon, couldn’t summon monsters, couldn’t yank starseeds.
But the chaotic aura felt as weak as any he’d ever felt, and Sawtooth felt a surge of refusal for its presence near his home. So he sought it out. Sheer petulance and male aggression made him look for trouble, and he found it, in the form of a black-clad, pink-haired man strolling down the sidewalk, acting as nonchalant as could be expected of someone out doing misdeeds without a conscience. Unacceptable.
Sawtooth didn’t waste time on a greeting as he moved for the other man, silently as possible, fists balled tight, aqua gaze fixated on the other’s back.
Nobleite felt it almost as a physical force. One second, he was alone; the night was dark, the wind was cool, the only illumination came from a few scattered street lamps and the occasional porch light left on. And then, he wasn’t. Something prickled to life at the edge of a sense he couldn’t quite describe. It was like something he couldn’t see out of the corner of his eye, or the pressure of a thought, but he knew it was very real and very there.
A knight- a page, more accurately- had just materialized nearby. Nobleite had avoided Order at nearly every turn, having only ever come into contact with a woman who’s aura was much more suffocating than this one- for the most part, anyway.
There had been that whole situation where it seemed like every senshi under the sun had come to wage war over the fate of fellow aliens, but Nobleite had been suitably distracted by physical accostment, and less concerned over what any specific aura felt like. This one, at least, was almost subtle. He should do as he always did and make his departure. There were few here he could drain off of.
The aura was behind him. Close, Nobleite realized, as the sound of boots crunching through the snow accompanied the auric sensation. Close and heading for him. If he ran, he could probably escape-
But his feet felt heavy in the snow, as if he was sloshing through water, almost. He glanced down to see that the snow had been steadily piling up on his boots, and it was like it clung to him now, making his steps slow and unsteady. Magic? When he glanced over his shoulder to see a man striding with brisk and determined steps in his direction, Nobleite started to feel decidedly nervous.
Maybe he was friendly. The woman had been friendly.
Although… One look at this dude’s piercing aqua eyes, and Nobleite absolutely did not think they’d be hanging around for a conversation. But his feet wouldn’t move. The snow kept piling, kept clinging, getting heavier and stickier, and it wasn’t affecting the page at all, so he’d have to resort to other measures.
He swallowed, tried to turn toward the other as best he could, and said in a voice practiced at dealing with people who could easily turn hostile, “Hey. Cold night, hm?”
Posted: Mon Dec 13, 2021 4:10 pm
Cold night.
Sawtooth wouldn’t have even noticed at that point. Just the audacity of this Chaos trash skulking around his neighborhood and then acting like they could have a casual conversation was enough to make him see red. Enough to make his face heat in anger as his teeth grit and eyes narrowed and brows furrowed. The least this guy should do was run, to have the decency to back off when he’d been found. The fact that he wasn’t was insulting.
For better or worse, Sawtooth’s body had already decided what it was going to do if he got close enough to the agent, and it definitely didn’t involve talking. If this guy was just a basic-a** lieutenant, and he didn’t have the brains to flee when a dude standing a foot taller than him started aggressively coming toward him, he had a lesson to learn.
Sawtooth wasn’t about to feel guilty about giving someone what they had coming.
His fists were already balled, and it didn’t even matter that he thought the pink-haired agent might look nervous or frightened or confused, he was still Chaos on a street where his daughter played with her friends and rode her bike and ran down the sidewalk to the babysitter’s house.
There was not a second more thought to be had as Sawtooth threw and cracked his knuckles into the other man’s face.
Any formal combat training he had came only from Kaiah, and his avoidance of most fights meant that he’d seldom practiced anywhere with real stakes. He couldn’t do that here. Couldn’t avoid a fight when it was at his home. And if he was going to start a fight, he was going to finish a fight.
A punch to the face was typically more disorienting and painful than actually damaging. If he wanted the agent to stay down and be unable to retaliate, there’d have to be more to it than that, but he’d have to be careful about getting too close. It’d only take a second for the guy to take the opportunity to reach into his chest.
Best not leave any opportunities, then. The following assault was several quick jabs to the agent’s side, and a sweep of a foot to try and break his ankle. Once he was down, it’d be easier to keep him there.
Whether intentional or magical or just some of the city’s shenanigans, the snow clung to him, and Nobleite struggled to move from there. The aqua-haired page had already very obviously decided he was coming for Nobleite in a way that was not friendly, and there was just- Nothing Nobleite could think to do about it. They weren’t going to talk. He couldn’t run. He was sloppy at best with his general’s combat lessons- Because he didn’t want to fight. Nobleite didn’t want that as a skill on his resume, and hadn’t taken to the training to any serious degree.
There wasn’t anything for him to do to deescalate this situation besides tip his head away and pinch his eyes closed.
The page punched him in the jaw. Pain exploded through the side of his head, and a warbling scream erupted from his throat as Nobleite’s arms flailed to defend himself. His body lurched away, but his stuck feet prohibited any such thing, and he went crashing sidelong, only for the page to grab him by the coat and throw another round of jabs at his side. “Stop!” Because that would probably help.
His fingers were grabbing back, pushing, scratching, smacking, all manner of weak attempts to disengage as his head spun and his breathing felt strained and small. “Let go of me!” He begged, a high-pitched tone that broke into a terrified, agonized wail as a kick dropped Nobleite to his knees. If he hadn’t been frightened before, the panic felt heavy on his tongue now with the knight looming over him and clearly invested in this fight.
Every pained sensation felt muted unde the suddenly blaring need to run, run, RUN. If he did not escape this page, the man would definitely do some serious damage. KIll him, if the opportunity was there. Leave him in the snow on this quiet street where some elderly neighbor would find him in the morning.
Nobleite’s fingers scrabbled through the snow as he tried to balance and right himself and escape, but he was already on the ground, disoriented, terrified.
Posted: Mon Dec 13, 2021 4:21 pm
It was kind of a pitiful guy. Even when they’d made eye contact, both very aware of the other’s presence, even after Sawtooth had ignored his attempts at conversation and went for him, the agent didn’t really… do anything? Didn’t try to run. Barely tried to fight. The most he could do was some weak shoving and some even weaker pleas. Maybe Sawtooth ought to have felt bad. It did seem an awful lot like beating someone up who was weak and untrained.
But then he shouldn’t be walking around powered in a residential neighborhood if he didn’t want someone to go after him. An agent could sneak up on anyone here. Break into their homes, steal their straseeds while they slept, harass the elderly retirees, sik monsters on the children, and that just wasn’t a risk Sawtooth felt comfortable with.
Maybe this was an especially weak agent. Maybe he was here by mistake. But one less Chaos was one less Chaos, no matter how it was achieved.
Maybe later he’d think there were better places to do this than out in the middle of the street. Maybe he’d scold himself for how risky it was to be too violent when anyone could be looking out their windows. Even if some magic prevented anyone who saw Sawtooth to be able to identify Elias, it was still risky to be so blatant, especially if the agent started screaming and begging.
But those thoughts were far from his thoughts now. One less Chaos was one less Chaos. One less scourge to plague the city. They were hardly even people. They were just things that had been warped by darkness. Death would set them free. Death was release.
Sawtooth kneed the agent in the ribs to shove him from his hands and knees onto his back. He still couldn’t risk getting close to hands that could rip his starseed, but if he was up here, and the agent was down there, what was the problem? It was almost ridiculously easy to pin one of the agent’s hand beneath one of Sawttoth’s boots, while the other foot rested- and then pressed- down on his chest.
There was still no need for talking. He didn’t want to hang around much longer with all the noise they’d already made.
”Help!” The word burbled from his throat before Nobleite could even wonder who he was calling for. If a civilian stuck their head out the door, what would happen then? Nobleite and the page would both flee into the night at being witnessed? There was always the chance that the civilian would power up to aid one of them- no telling which. Or maybe nothing would happen. Nobleite was already floundering through the snow. How hard would it be to just-?
Would a knight actually kill him? They were an enemy in a war, and the Negaverse painted them in such a way as to call them ‘terrorists.’ But they were still just humans. Humans who’d been deemed ‘worthy’ by some powerful cosmic force and granted powers so that they could protect some scrap of land- They were supposed to protect. That was their job. Of course he’d heard mixed reviews- both stories of unimaginable violence and ones of extreme pacifism, so it seemed to vary between individuals how… violent they were.
True of everyone, he supposed.
A knee collided with his ribs, and Nobleite was knocked to his side, then rolled to his back. A boot was stomped over his palm, and the squawk of sound the agent made as he tried to yank himself free rapidly devolved into a terrified little sob. The cold of the snow seeped into his fingers, making the pressure feel like little needles.
But the other foot was on his chest, and while he couldn’t feel the cold as bad there, the protest in his bones was much more pronounced. The wind was being pinched out of him. The pressure was mounting. His one free hand shoved at the leg, but no amount of pounding or scratching seemed to do anything through the page’s pant leg.
“Stop, stop!” Nobleite begged through a hoarsening voice. “You don’t have to do this- I didn’t do anything! I-I don’t want-”
To die here? On the street in the snow? What would happen to him if he died powered. Wild crystal blue eyes flicked up to the page’s face desperately as the air was all being forced out of him, like a balloon with a hole too small. “Stop,” he weazed again.
The thoughts flickered rapid and half-thunk across his mind. Would they know? Would anyone know it was Micah if he was killed here? Would all of Chaos’ magic evaporate out of him as soon as his heart stopped beating, just leaving a sad, pale boy in the cold? Or would they only find Nobleite? Just Nobleite’s body, and Micah would just be “gone,” someone disappeared like the hundreds of others the city lost. His family wouldn’t even know. Wouldn’t know he’d died just in their neighborhood. They’d think he abandoned them… He’d moved on, forgotten, stopped caring. His daughter would wonder. His mother.
Elias… maybe he’d care, maybe he wouldn’t.
Nobleite’s cheeks felt hot despite the chill. Chilly tears leaked out of his eyes because he was scared and couldn’t breathe and the pressure was escalating such that his bones protested the treatment, and this page didn’t care.
It wouldn’t have mattered one way or the other. He should’ve thought about how it didn’t matter who he died as, because no murderer was just going to leave the evidence of their crime out in the middle of the street for everyone to find. Even most Negaversers knew better than that, so this page probably wouldn’t, either.
But Nobleite didn’t think that, couldn’t think that. Could only think how they’d think he abandoned them, he left them, one more “disappearance,” one more person they never found. It would kill him. It would kill him-
He powered down. If he died, they would find Micah. His family would know he wasn’t gone by choice.
His body immediately felt weaker, colder, less resilient. The heel of the page’s boot abruptly crunched, and Micah’s lips parted in a confused spatter of- copper? He tasted copper. It was hot on his lips, then cold on his chin. He couldn’t see- couldn’t see that far down. Blood? He tried to inhale, didn’t feel like it worked, tried to grab with his fingers for- for something? Stability? Help?
Not from this man, surely, but from something. His head fell back to the snow, breath burbling against his lips.
Posted: Mon Dec 13, 2021 4:32 pm
It was what he wanted. For this agent to never have the ******** gall to step foot on this street again. ’Help! Stop! I didn’t do anything!’ And he never would again. Chaos tricked, deceived, and manipulated those who used its power. Maybe they thought they were doing good- But he doubted it. They had to know stealing energy and lives to feed some space amalgamation was not “good.”
Sawtooth wouldn’t usually choose to go this far, if he was being reasonable. He’d been in his share of bar fights. He was a big guy, and when things got rowdy, he certainly could hurt someone. It wasn’t usually his intention to kill.
But it was unacceptable for an agent to be lurking so near his home. It was unacceptable, and who would miss him, really? People like this surely didn’t have, like, families of their own. Because if they had people they really loved and cared about, they would know that they couldn’t go around stealing the life out of people who also had families they loved and cared about. They were warped. Not right. Ending them would save them, send their starseeds back to the cauldron to be healed.
He wished it could be less violent.
Sawtooth pressed his weight down onto the agent’s chest. No pleading, no scratching at him or weakly pushing on him would make him cease. This just had to be done to protect his daughter. He didn’t like it, but it was necessary. The other man was crying and begging, wheezing and desperate.
But this didn’t need to go on for long. His bones would snap under Sawtooth’s weight, the air would leave his lungs. He’d go still, quiet- Sawtooth didn’t know what he’d do after that. Take the body and…? Dump it? He couldn’t just leave it here for anyone to find…
It was that first trickle of a thought that made him hesitate. He’d be a killer, no going back from it. If anyone found out it was “Elias” behind it, his life would be all the way over. Either the Negaverse would find him and kill him, or the authorities would lock him away forever. Could he really risk that? If he could, would he be able to live with himself thinking about the crying and the begging? From someone he had never seen do anything wrong…?
But he had to. He had to because it was chaos, and they couldn’t be allowed to walk the streets. Kaiah had killed. He could always escape to Sawtooth, and she would be his counsel.
Sawtooth leaned forward, pressing his weight down harder. He looked into bright crystal eyes set in a tear-stained face, knew there was nothing either of them could say to right anything that happened here-
But he didn’t say anything else. The boy powered down.
Sawtooth’s body tipped forward with an obnoxiously loud crunch- not his boot making the sound, but the other man’s ribs splintering as they buckled under the pressure. The agent made a choke of sound. Blood appeared on his lips. His broken ribs had pierced his lungs, and he was suffocating, drowning, rather.
He would have tried not to think about it. It was what he’d been trying to do. Kill the agent so he couldn’t hurt anyone else, but Sawtooth looked down and he only saw-
Micah.
His Micah.
His lover. His husband.
The man he’d raised a child with for five years, choking and bleeding under his boot, after Sawtooth had tried earnestly to kill him- He lurched back, a stuttered gasp of, “M-micah?” rasping out of him.
The pressure left him, but it didn’t abate the deep sense of pain radiating through his chest. It was a dull, achy sort of thing, sharper only in pinpoint places, but cold, and getting colder. He drew an arm up, lay it over his stomach and swept up. There was no blood. Nothing on the outside of his body even felt too strange through his clothes. He didn’t press, but his breath was stuttery and ragged. He was laying in the snow, ice melt seeping into his clothes, tasting blood on his tongue. He couldn’t move, could hardly breathe. He should understand what was happening, but his mind tripped.
”M-micah?”
His head turned, blindly following the knight’s retreat, and his neck twisted to find wide, confused aqua eyes. He knew him. The knight knew his name. Micah’s lips parted in question, but succeeded only in a wheeze of breath. His lips closed and parted again, a fish gasping.
How, why? The page knew him. Who? No one he’d known- But that was the point, wasn’t it? You weren’t supposed to know when your friends and relatives were living a secret powered life. He hadn’t told anyone- And they would never know. The tears were still coming, leaving streaks down his cheeks. He was hurt and scared and lonely, and he couldn’t be angry- But he was sad, so sad.
That this was the most he’d be. A far cry from a few years ago. A father with a loving husband and a doctorate degree to keep his family well off and comfortable. He’d been happy. It just didn’t work out that it stayed like that. The Negaverse had taken him, and… that was that.
This was the end.
He almost wished the page, for all his anger and aggression, wouldn’t leave him, laying here alone in the snow as he choked and stuttered.
Posted: Mon Dec 13, 2021 4:42 pm
They weren’t right. They were warped. Sawtooth had thought as much mere moments ago. This was what was supposed to happen to agents of Chaos, so they could be cured. And Micah’s change had been so abrupt- so chilly and standoffish, like he’d been turned into something wrong. It was what he deserved. For cheating on him, for leaving him, for being with the Negaverse. There was the tiniest pillar of satisfaction that stood in his heart as he stared down at his ex’s bloodstained lips.
But the dismay that chased it towered over any spiteful righteousness easily. Dismay at identifying anything that felt good or justified at leaving his lover to die on the ground. How could he ever think it was right? This was how monsters reasoned their actions.
His Micah. The father of their daughter. She looked just like him.
Sawtooth felt his own chest tighten, his own throat close. He couldn’t- he couldn’t kill this man. Though he was already so close to doing just that. No. No, no, not his Micah. If they’d hurt each other in the past year, it wasn’t worth this. Wasn’t worth his life.
Sawtooth stooped down, touching a shaking hand to the damp and chilly skin at Micah’s forehead, gently smoothing down the tangles in his pink hair. He couldn’t stay. He couldn’t stay, and he had nothing to offer in terms of knowledge of how best to handle this situation. But if he left, he could call an ambulance to pick him up. If they were going to arrive in time, he’d have to do it now.
He had to. What other choice was there?
No apologies. Sawtooth stood, turned, ran, fled toward the three story house at the end of the block, where he could lurch to the roof, power down, pull out his civilian cell phone and dial for paramedics. Both of them couldn’t be at risk. He didn’t have the time to think if he could just power down there, next to an agent, if it jeopardized both of them. But he didn’t go far. He could see where they’d torn up the snow with their steps and flailing, could see the dark blob of a person lying amidst the slush. But he could not see if Micah struggled, if he breathed.
It was only a few moments before he heard the sirens.
No, no, nonono- Micah’s hand weakly grappled to hold the man there. Don’t leave him, don’t leave him, please. But he could effectively vocalize none of it. He already struggled to breathe, he felt light-headed. When his chest tightened with fear and panic and desperation, he thought for sure he would just pass out. The knight evaded his attempts to grab him, stood, and left. And Micah cried, choked, hated that he couldn’t do or say anything because his limbs were frozen and weak, and his body was heavy and trembling, and he wasn’t going to be able to do anything-
But lie here.
And die.
Alone.
He didn’t want that. He’d separated himself from his family because he was scared of what the Negaverse would do to them if he failed to be useful. He hadn’t been excited about it, but it was just what he had to do. Now he was alone, like he was supposed to be. Dying, so he would not be troublesome to anyone, anymore. And he was scared and sad and didn’t want this, and he was ashamed of himself for wishing it was different.
Sirens in the distance grew louder. He hardly felt anything on his body. He should be cold and hurt, but there was just a sort of tactile void as everything shut down. Maybe some combination of shock, hyperthermia, lack of oxygen- It wasn’t so strange, then, and he wouldn’t argue about it. He didn’t want to hurt; he just didn’t want to be alone.
The sirens were close, voices screaming, ”Here, here!” with a few attempts to rouse his attention. People he didn’t recognize. He couldn’t focus on them, hardly saw them, didn’t feel them at all as they lifted him. Micah’s blue eyes were like glass as he stared beyond them. -They were here. He wasn’t alone.
They slid him into an ambulance, with the doors closing quickly behind.
Posted: Mon Dec 13, 2021 4:58 pm
They’d found him.
Elias had wondered how likely they were to find one lone body in the middle of a residential street, but an ambulance had arrived, and whether or not they’d picked up a live person or a dead body was still up in the air… But they’d found him. They’d found him, picked him up, and taken him away to a hospital.
He’d hardly taken a moment to grapple with what to do, but now that it was entirely out of his hands, a choked sob shook out of him, and Elias sank to his knees. What had he done, what had he done, what had he done? Tried to kill a person who hadn’t done anything? Tried to hurt his Micah? He should’ve stayed with him, should’ve taken him to the hospital, should’ve shoved breath down his throat like Elias’ own life depended on it-
But he’d ran. Because he didn’t want paramedics to see him there. Didn’t want the Negaverse to arrive to avenge one of their fallen agents.
But because he’d run, Micah could already be dead. He could’ve died there, frozen in the snow. It would be Elias’ fault if he got that call- ’He’s gone.’. It would be him that would have to tell Teyla that her Daddy wouldn’t be coming to see her, anymore.
Elias trembled and choked, and doubled over to touch his forehead to the sheet of snow on top of some stranger’s house. What could he do? What should he do? What should he have done? Nothing, probably. Not try to kill someone not even fighting back. Save him- Had he? Micah was a good person. And now there wasn’t anything he could do but wait. Wait and see if anyone called him with news of his ex’s death.
Wait and see if he would make it, and he could visit at the hospital…
